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New Microsoft Patent Shows Dual-Screen Device with 360-Degree Rotation Support In recent years, Microsoft’s efforts in mobile haven’t been a resounding success. The company banked most of its hope on Windows Phone, and purchased Nokia’s Devices and Services division in 2014 to compete with Android and iOS. However, Windows Phone and its successor, Windows 10 Mobile, failed to gain traction, and Microsoft discontinued the Lumia smartphone lineup in 2016 as a result. Since then, rumors persist that Microsoft hasn’t completely closed the chapter on its mobile efforts, despite ending support for Windows Mobile and Windows Phone. Specifically, the company’s reportedly working on a new ARM-powered Surface device, code-named “ Andromeda “, that’s highly portable. Recently, Microsoft posted a job posting  that hinted at its plans. And this week,  Windows Latest  discovered a Microsoft patent that shows a mobile device with a foldable display. ...

OxygenOS 4.7.6 Update for the OnePlus 5T Focuses on Camera and System Optimizations It’s been three weeks since the last major OxygenOS OTA update , and this week, OnePlus announced version 4.7.6 for the OnePlus 5T . Most of the phone’s firmware upgrades have so far focused on camera and system optimizations, and OxygenOS 4.7.6 is no different. The previous OxygenOS update for the OnePlus 5T touched on the kernel, firmware files, and a few camera and hardware encoding/decoding libraries, but OxygenOS 4.7.6 is mostly about the camera. It improves the stability of handset’s camera software, according to OnePlus, and delivers “clarity” improvements for low-light shots captured with the selfie sensor. In addition, it improves the performance of third-party camera apps. But the OnePlus 5T’s camera isn’t the only thing that’s changed in the new OxygenOS. OnePlus added “assistive lighting” for the device’s new face unlock featu...

Report: AT&T to Begin Selling the Huawei Mate 10 in February The Mate is Huawei’s high-end flagship, and it’s the smartphone series on which the company focuses most of its attention. The China-based smartphone maker  launched multiple devices in the Mate 10 lineup earlier this year, and there’s been talk of  Huawei bringing the Mate 10 to U.S. carriers . Now, a new report claims that it’ll begin selling the Mate 10 in AT&T stores in 2018. Earlier this year, Huawei claimed that the Mate 10 would be able to beat out anything that Apple had to offer. But there was a problem: The company couldn’t get its devices on domestic carriers’ shelves. This month, though, Richard Yu, head of Huawei’s Technologies Consumer Business Group, confirmed that the Mate 10 would come to U.S. carriers in 2018. And just this week,  The Information reports that the Mate 10 will come to AT&T as early as February. That’s mostly a good thing. The Mate...

OxygenOS Open Beta, Based on Android Oreo, Headed to the OnePlus 5T OnePlus, which recently released the OnePlus 5T , has received a lot of flak for missing self-imposed deadlines on major updates to OxygenOS , its custom Android skin. While it managed to keep its promise to push out an Android 7.0 Nougat update for the OnePlus 3 and the OnePlus 3T before the end of 2016, it’s broken others, including a promised  Nougat update for the OnePlus 2 . OnePlus has, however, managed to make amends with its most recent update cycle. Not only has it released a timely Android 8.0 Oreo update for the OnePlus 5 , but it’s also brought  the same Oreo update, dubbed OxygenOS 5.0, to last year’s flagships — the OnePlus 3 and the OnePlus 3T. And the OnePlus 5T is next in line — Twitter account for OnePlus Germany announced this week that the Open Beta program for Android Oreo is headed to the OP5T. Weihnachten ist zwar vorbei, aber wir haben trotzdem ein Geschenk f...

Report: HTC Plans to Limit the Number of New Smartphones in 2018 Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you probably know that HTC’s smartphone business hasn’t been doing all that well lately. Quarter after quarter, the company’s put out earnings reports  that show it’s losing millions of dollars  as a result of poor sales and high overhead. HTC tried to alleviate the issues by selling off some of its handset division to Google, and a new report in DigitTimes  states it’s planning to limit the number of new smartphones it ships this year. The report, citing “industry sources”, claims that HTC will focus on researching, developing, and marketing a limited number of devices in 2018. The cutback’s intended to help reduce the amount of overhead, but also to free up resources for its mid-range and high-end device lineups. According to DigiTimes , the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) will ship at least two smartphones in the coming...

Xiaomi Launches Mi Service Order Status in India, Allowing Users to Track Repairs After-sales service is an important consideration when buying a new smartphone. It differentiates well-known brands from no-name brands, and it lays the foundation for brand trust and loyalty. While the state of manufacturer service centers varies by countries, it’s fair to say that some vendors provide better after-sales service than others. In India, we’ve seen our fair share of bad actors — some of which force customers to wait for up to a full month to get their devices repaired. It’s given a competitive advantage to original equipment manufacturers (OEM) who make an effort to offer superior after-sales service. Take Xiaomi, for example, which launched a new feature in India on Wednesday: Mi Service Order status. It allows users to track their devices’ repair status on Mi.com, the company’s e-commerce portal, and it shows a five-stage tracking indicator. Here are th...

Andromeda Lets You Theme Oreo Without Root, and It’s on Sale One of the reasons people root their Android phones is to get system-wide theming support. In the past, it was built into CyanogenMod’s popular Theme Engine (CMTE) , but CMTE was retired in LineageOS , and the baton of system-wide theming support has been passed to Substratum . Substratum required custom ROM support initially, but that changed with the release of Android Oreo . Android Oreo brought native support for themes based on the Overlay Manager Service (OMS). The developers of Substratum released Andromeda , a paid add-on package for Substratum that allows system-wide theming even on rootless Android devices . Andromeda requires the Substratum application and a one-click desktop too, which allows Substratum to get elevated privileges. For rootless users, Andromeda opens a world of possibilities: You can apply a system-wide dark theme, change your phone’s navigation bar icons, and a lot more. Check o...